Lake Bosumtwi

I spent the final weekend of February at Lake Bosumtwi near Kumasi with Jacqueline and Gijs. We took a tro tro to Kumasi on Saturday morning and had lunch at Vic Baboo’s Cafe. Jacqueline was stunned to see three pages of vegetarian options in the menu. We arrived at the lake in the late afternoon. Guide book stuff – this is the largest natural fresh water lake in Ghana. It lies in a crater probably formed by a meteorite rather than a volcano. It covers 25 km2 and has a depth of 90 metres and increasing. There is a taboo on the use of traditional fishing boats and consequently fishermen paddle round with their hands on roughly hewn planks of wood called padua. Life has been made easier for them now they are allowed to use nets. The book also says that fishing is not allowed on Sundays but the fishermen clearly haven’t read the book.
It should have been possible to see the ridge of mountainous peaks all around the lake but the Harmattan wind has returned in some force and it was very hazy with all the dust. Nevertheless it was a very tranquil spot. We stayed at the Lake Point Guesthouse run by an Austrian-Ghanaian couple. The accommodation and food were of a very high standard. I particularly liked the breakfast pancakes with fresh papaya. There were a couple of cats hanging around particularly at meal times. The guesthouse had its own section of beach on the lakeshore. On Sunday we walked east around the lake to the next three villages and then returned to spend the afternoon reading in hammocks by the water. We left on Monday morning and rather than take a tro tro from Kumasi we experimented with the big orange Metrobus. Cheaper than the tro tro, but the more rigid suspension gave the speed bumps a more jarring effect.